Sweet Pea
by Jennawnanaw
Summary: A couple years into the future, Kate is left home alone while Castle takes their daughter on an overnight trip. What kind of trouble can she get herself into? Summary, genres, and title may change with updates. *rating will for sure change to M when the third chapter is up*
1. One

Disclaimer- You know the drill, I don't own the usual characters. Yada yada yada.

A/N: I started writing this before Beckett got the D.C job offer. So, let's just pretend like that never happened, okay? Bryn's age (and how far into the future this is set) is up for interpretation. Got it? Good.

Her heels clicked with each step she took down the hall. When she got to the door she shifted the files she was carrying to her left arm, and dug in her purse for her key. Kate pushed the door open and peered into the empty loft.

Castle had left earlier that day for a special book signing at one of his favorite book stores in Maine. He normally didn't go that far for signings without taking her, but he knew the owner and the store was just re-opening after nearly being burnt to the ground. She'd spent nights without him, of course, but this time was so much different. The silence in the loft felt thicker to Kate. With her hard at work on a case, Alexis busy with finals, and Martha on the road with a play, Castle had taken their daughter with him.

Kate thought back to her day at the precinct. She'd just gotten done with an interrogation and was walking back to her desk only to find it occupied. Little Bryn Castle sat in her mom's chair, brown curls tied back in a ponytail and pink converse clad feet swinging to and fro. Her dad sat in his usual seat, facing his daughter and listening intently to whatever it was she was blabbering.

Bryn was very popular in the precinct. Pictures of her decorated the top of Kate's desk, and drawings she had scribbled were hung on the break room fridge. She knew almost all the homicide cops by name, and had a secret handshake with Captain Gates. The squad room had a small toy box tucked away in the corner for both Bryn and Ryan's son, Aaron. Though Aaron was a year and a half older, he and Bryn were best of friends and were both extremely fond of their Uncle Javi.

Though it may seem like bad parenting to some, Bryn spent quite a lot of time in the bullpen when Alexis and Martha were busy. Kate and Castle had spent many a night debating on if a babysitter was necessary. There was always someone in the precinct that they could trust to watch Bryn while they were chasing down a lead. Gates would be in her office or there was always a uniform wandering around. She was very content with just sitting and coloring pictures to be displayed at the loft or around the bullpen, and even when she did get restless, she had a tendency to simply go into the squad room and play with her toys by herself. Many times, Kate would walk into the room only to be informed that it was now a spaceship or the jungle or that the barbies were exploring the depths of the ocean.

Bryn inherited her father's imagination, that's for sure, but also a little bit of her mother's skepticism. 'I don't think so,' she'd say around Christmas, 'if Santa eats ALL the cookies, he'd be too fat for the sleigh.' When Kate would explain that Santa's sleigh is magic, Bryn would simply scrunch up her face, as though she smelt something bad.

Approaching her desk, Kate beamed at the sight of her daughter. She'd had to leave for work before Bryn woke up, and wasn't sure she was going to get to see her. The little girl's bright blue eyes locked on Kate and returned the smile. "Hi, Mommy!"

"Hey, buttercup," Kate said, coming around to bend over the back of her chair and kiss Bryn on the cheek, "Are you excited for your trip with Daddy?"

The little girl's smile widened as she enthusiastically announced, "Yeah! I packed my own suitcase and evvvverything!" Kate let her jaw drop in fake astonishment, she'd packed Bryn's actual suitcase the night before.

"Did you forget anything?" the detective lifted her daughter and sat down in the chair, then set Bryn back on her lap.

"Nope," she replied proudly, "I got my barbies, and my colors, and my coloring books , and my blankie." Kate nodded with each item.

"Did you forget Rosco?" Castle raised his eyebrows. Bryn's mouth fell open a bit as she focused on where she'd put her unicorn Pillow Pet.

"Oh, geez," the little girl did a facepalm, "I forGOT him! Daddy, he's home all by himself! He's gonna get out of my roooom!"

Castle's brow furrowed and he stroked his chin in a horrible attempt to look thoughtful, "Actually, sweet pea, I think I saw him crawl into your suitcase this morning."

"He did?" she gasped, and was instantly on the floor, unzipping her self-packed suitcase. When she got the zipper all the way around and saw the fluffy white unicorn inside, she sighed in relief. "Phew," she puffed dramatically, "that was a close one!" While Bryn scolded Rosco the unicorn for scaring her, Kate and Castle took the opportunity to step into the squad room and say their goodbyes.

"We should be there right in time for supper," Castle said, wrapping his arms around her hips. Kate let him pull her closer and buried her face in his neck, breathing in his familiar scent. "We'll call you and send you so many pictures, you won't want us to come back."

"Just be careful," she mumbled into his neck. Castle smiled and pressed his lips to the top of her head.

"Always."

Kate was pulled back to the present by her phone jingling in her purse. She shut the door with her foot and made a beeline to the living room all the while digging for her phone. The files bounced a little when she plopped down next to them on the couch and unlocked her phone. She had one new picture message from Castle. She'd already received one right after an interrogation at 3:00 of Bryn asleep in the car. She'd been sitting in her car seat, mouth agape, Rosco the unicorn shoved behind her head, and an open Nintendo DS falling out of her lap.

The new picture was another of Bryn, sitting in the booth of some bar and grill. Her eyes were squinted in a cheesey smile, and a plate of chicken nuggets and a scribbled-on kids menu sat in front of her. Kate beamed at her screen, and saved the picture to her photos. She figured they were probably eating before they checked into the hotel. So, she'd give them an hour and a half before she called.

A growl from her stomach drew Kate into the kitchen. She opened up the pantry and rummaged around for anything that looked good. The pantry was full of all sorts of kid-food. Princess fruit snacks, Gold Fish crackers, Wonder bread, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. She pulled out the bread and a jar of peanut butter marked with a big, red X. The X was for Bryn. Though she wasn't supposed to get food without asking, they kept all the nut products marked with big X's. The doctor had said it was, more than likely, just a childhood allergy. Just in case, Kate and Castle decided they'd teach her what she could and couldn't eat by marking things with X's.

Kate stared blankly at the peanut butter and bread. What she really wanted was Chinese. It was all-hands-on-deck with her current case, and the peanut butter sandwich just wasn't going to cut it. She shoved the jar and the bread back into the pantry and grabbed her phone to call delivery. She got one digit typed in when the doorbell rang. Always a cop, Kate approached the door with one hand on her gun. She looked through the peephole to find a teenage delivery boy standing in the hallway with a bag of Chinese takeout. Her brow furrowed in confusion and she opened the door.

"DeliveryforKate," the delivery boy said quickly, Kate could tell he was new to the job. His dopey smile dropped at her expression of sheer confusion. "DidIgettheaddresswrong?" He checked the slip of paper in his hand where the address was scribbled down.

"No, I'm Kate. I just didn't order anything."

"Wegotanorderfromthisaddress," he handed her the bag of food. Kate peered into the plastic sack. Egg rolls, fried rice, and sesame chicken. Her usual order.

"Um, okay," she ran a hand through the hair, "let me go get my wallet." She turned back into the living room, but saw the boy start to leave. "Hey!" she stopped him, "I still have to pay you."

"Nope," he smiled again, "I' ." With that, the delivery boy escaped into the elevator. Kate stood alone in the hall with her white plastic bag, looking completely and utterly stunned.

"We just wanted to make sure you didn't starve," Castle explained. He was laying on his side next to Bryn, who was all tucked into her hotel bed. Bryn held his phone with Kate on speaker phone.

"Yeah!" Bryn agreed with a nod, "Mommy! Guess What! Theres a POOL here! Daddy and I went swimming today!"

"Wow! That sounds like a pretty fancy hotel!"

"They even had a slide! And a hot tub! They wouldn't let me swim in the hot tub for a long time, though. Cause I'm not a grown up. And they said I get my picture taken AND they hang it up if I go on the slide a bunch 'a times! Daddy said I can do that tomorrow after we go sign books," Bryn rambled.

"It's called the Mile Slide Challenge," Castle explained into the receiver, "if you go down the slide 48 times, you'll have slid a mile. They take your picture and hang it on the wall behind the check in counter."

"Yeah, and I'm gonna do it! And they're gonna hang my picture up, and EVERYONE is gonna get to see it!" Bryn squirmed with excitement. Castle had Bryn say good night to her mother and -after telling Kate he loved her- he hung up. The night-night ritual progressed. Night-light on, lights out, bed-time-story-book picked out and ready to be read aloud.

"Daddy," Bryn looked up at her dad, "will you TELL me a bedtime story?" Castle looked down at the racoons on cover of _The Kissing Hand_, sitting in his lap. They'd read that particular story hundreds of times and he was starting to think both he and Kate could recite it.

"Of course, sweet pea," he said, righting himself on the bed, "I've got a good one for you." He waited till she was situated under the covers before he started. "Once upon a time there was a man living in New York. His name was Joe and his job was to tell people if their family was being naughty. If a wife thought her husband was being naughty, she'd hire Joe to find out if he was. He was also really good at finding people.

"One day, a young girl from a farm came to Joe and asked him to find her sister, Vera. See, the girls' mother was sick and Vera had left home to follow her dreams in New York. Joe looked all over New York for Vera and, when he finally found her, it was love at first sight."

"Did they get married?" Bryn blurted, eye lid getting droopy. Castle gave her a smile and continued.

"Not right away, because there was a problem. Vera had a boyfriend, a mean boyfriend who bullied other people to get what he wanted. He showered Vera with gifts. Dresses, shoes, jewelry, and -most importantly- a priceless necklace called the blue butterfly. This boyfriend was so mean that Vera couldn't just break up with him, so she and Joe came up with a plan to run away together.

"One night, Vera sat with her boyfriend and all of his friends around the radio. They were listening to a very important boxing match. She waited till everyone was paying close attention to the radio, and excused herself to the bathroom. Instead of going to the bathroom she went outside where Joe was waiting for her," Castle watched his daughter's eyes close and breathing become more relaxed, "they ran away together and lived happily ever after."

He moved off the bed, careful not to wake her up, then lightly kissed her forehead. Castle silently took a picture of Bryn's sleeping figure and sent it off to Kate with a caption saying 'The tranquilizer darts were a success!'

Within half a minute came her reply 'Just as long as you aim for her butt.'

A/N (again): Here's the cliché 'please review' note. So, review. Also (less cliché), I'm still trying to figure out what direction I want to go with this, so I'll leave it as incomplete for now, but it may end up as just a one-shot. The rating may change, depending on how (and if) I update it.


	2. Two

Disclaimer- Thou doth not own-ith thy usual cast of thine characters.

By 11:45 the next morning, Kate was half-way through her second cup of coffee and was walking out of her third interrogation. There'd been a break in the case in the wee hours of the morning, when a major suspect started a bar fight and was picked up by a uniform. She tacked up a new picture under the suspect category on the board and downed the rest of her coffee. Her phone buzzed from her desktop with another picture message from Castle.  
This picture was taken by a third party at the bookstore. Bryn sat in her dad's lap, holding a copy of the latest Nikki Heat open so the title page was showing. Under the title, 'To Maddie, keep shining! - Richard Castle' was scrawled in Sharpie. Then -under Castle's signature- was BRYN, written in big, crooked, purple-crayon letters. The caption Castle had sent with it read 'One girl asked Bryn to sign her book, too. Now she's got her own line!'. Kate was smiling down at her phone when Esposito walked up to her.  
"Yo," he looked curiously down at her phone.  
"Picture from Castle," she explained, tilted the phone so he could see, and watched the smile spread across his face, too.  
"You shoulda' gone with them, Ryan and I could've handled things here."  
"Nah," Kate shook her head, "She's having some father-daughter time. Whadda' you got for me?" And, with that, Kate plunged back into the case.

"What color?" Bryn wondered aloud as she studied the array of crayons on the folding table. She settled on red and pressed the wax stick to the title page. B-R-Y-N. She beamed up at the woman standing in front of her.  
"Thank you so much," the woman smiled back, "it was so nice meeting you." As the woman walked away, Bryn swished her feet back and forth under her chair and grabbed a cracker out of her Lunchable.  
"You know, Sweet Pea," her dad glanced over at her, " I think you might have more fans than I do."  
"Probably cause I'm more cuter," Bryn replied matter-of-factly. Castle laughed and turned his attention to the next person in line.  
"You don't think I'm cute?"  
"Nope. Mommy thinks you are, though." This caused everyone in earshot to chuckle and whisper to each other about how adorable the little Castle girl is.  
"Well, that's good, I think Mommy is cute, too."  
"That's 'cause you guys are in love," she explained as she formed a 'Y' on another title page with a blue crayon. Castle smiled at his daughter, then up at the Castle groupie standing in front of him.

At 9:30 that night, Kate was still at the precinct. The case was coming to a close, in fact, she was ready to make an arrest. Ryan and Esposito were in the bullpen, waiting for her to step out of the observation room. She knew she needed to go, but it was 9:30 and her perp wasn't going anywhere. She'd gotten a picture message of Bryn in the hotel lobby, proudly holding up her Mile Slide Challenge completion certificate. Her hair was pulled into two soggy pig-tails and her striped swimsuit appeared to be dripping water on the floor.  
Now, Kate sat alone in observation, listening to her daughter relay every detail of going down the slide 48 times.  
"There was a BUNCH of stairs going up to it, and I got REALLY tired going up 'em. And the lady at the bottom counted for me, and and she told me how many I had left every time."  
"Wow, I bet you're tuckered out!"  
"Nope! And guess what! When we were writing our names in the books, I had my VERY OWN LINE AND I SPELT MY NAME RIGHT EVVVVERY SINGLE TIME!" Bryn said.  
"Good job!" Kate checked her watch, "listen, Buttercup, Mommys got to go catch a bad guy. Be good, and tell Daddy I love him."  
"Okay, love you, Mommy."  
"I love you more, Sweet Pea. Sleep tight." Kate hung up with a smile and took a moment to relive that conversation with Bryn. She thought about how much she loved her pig-tails and little voice, her miniature converse and her blue eyes. Then, she stepped into the bullpen, ready to round up a criminal.

The case wrapped up a little after midnight and, after clearing off the murder board and finishing necessary paperwork, Kate was hailing a cab by quarter to one. She directed the driver to a little 24-hour grocery a block and a half away from the loft. Kate was tired, but wanted nothing more than to slip into one of her lavender bubble baths.  
A teenager slept, slumped in his chair behind the counter. The bell above the door jostled him awake and Kate guessed his age at 17. He watched suspiciously as she perused the shelves for her bath bubbles. With the bulge in her blazer from her gun and the late hour, she couldn't really blame the kid. Even as she put the soap on the counter and he took her cash, he kept his eyes glued to the gun on her hip.  
Kate kept her head on swivel and her hand on her gun as she walked down the sidewalk. She loved walking through the city at night. She loved the glow the lamps cast on the street, and the click her heels made on the cement. She especially loved night like this, when there wasn't anyone down on the street. Only a cab or two passing by occasionally. When it was quite, by New York standards.  
Then, she noticed it was quite. There were footsteps. There were footsteps right behind her. Kate spun around and drew her piece with lightning speed. She still only had time to acquire her target and register what he held in his hand. She mentally yelled 'TASER' before the barbs implanted themselves in her skin and everything went black.

A/N: Sorry this took so long to update. I'm not going to give you any excuses (I do have some good ones, though) The next chapter will probably bump the rating up to M for language (I'd have some words to say if I was tased, too). The 'Maddie keep shining' was a shoutout to Maddie, who does not read fanfictions, let alone Castle ones. But, please review yada, yada, yada, cliche, cliche, cliche. Also, I'd LOVE some ideas for a better title. Cause this title seriously sucks.


	3. Three

A/N: So, this next chapter definitely bumps the rating up to M. There's some language thats not exactly consistent with a K rating...  
Also, I apologize about the format of the first two chapters. I'll work on fixing that, hopefully this one is better. You know the drill, I don't own the usual characters and such.

When Kate came to her head was pounding. She was laying down and everything was dark. She blinked her eyes a couple times, just to make sure they were actually open._ Oh my God_, she thought as the panic set in,_ I'm blind. I'm fucking blind_! She could feel duct tape across her lips. Zip ties dug, painfully, into her wrists, ankles, and around her knees and elbows. Her fingers brushed over her bare legs. Bare? I had jeans on earlier. Kate could feel her heartbeat quicken and her breathing become ragged. She squirmed against the binds and bumped against walls on either side. She was enclosed.

The feeling of panic before was nothing compared to the realization that she enclosed. Kate was not normally a claustrophobic person, but in this instant she felt suffocated. Like there wasn't enough air in the world for her. Her mind was reeling._ Where are my clothes? Where am I? Who are these people? What do they want with me? I'm going to die. I'm going to die and Bryn and Castle will be alone. How long have I been out? Maybe they're home by now and Ryan and Espo are looking for me. Maybe not. Probably not. This isn't helping._  
The cop in Kate forced her to shut her eyes and take a deep breath through her nose, then another, and another until she had all those negative thoughts out of her mind. She needed to focus on the facts.

_Fact: I'm in a closed space._ Kate squirmed a little more, getting a feel for her enclosure. It wasn't hard, but it wasn't very soft. She turned her head and took a big whiff of the wall. Cardboard. Her feet weren't touching a wall nor was her head, Kate figured the box once belonged to a fake Christmas tree.

_Fact: My clothes are gone._ More squirming proved her wrong, she was still in possession of her bra and underwear. She blew a sigh of relief out of her nose.

_Fact: My head feels like it was run over by a fucking semi._ The last thing she remembered was the man with the taser. If he didn't catch her, she could've hit her head on the pavement when she fell._ That's a problem,_ she thought_, I might have a concussion_. Deciding to stay positive, she pushed the thought out a concussion out of her mind.

_Fact: Espo watched me get into that cab, the cabby watched me go into the corner grocery. I at least have a trail. A short trail, but a trail all the same._

Castle watched from the window of the homicide bullpen. He watched Esposito lean casually against the cab parked below while he talked with the driver. Castle wondered as he sometimes did with all the detectives how Esposito could remain so calm, show no anxiety, while Kate was MIA.

He'd told Bryn, of course, Castle always like to remain truthful towards his daughters. He'd told her they didn't know where Mommy was, but they were going to find her. That she needed to stay with Lanie, so Daddy, Uncle Javi, and Uncle Kevin could go find mommy.  
Now, Bryn sat at her mother's desk, talking with her Aunt Lanie. Esposito came out of the elevator and Castle met him at his desk. The detective grabbed his keys and called to his partner.

"Cabbie dropped her at a little grocery a couple blocks from your place," Espo announced, already making his way back to the elevator.  
"I know the one," Castle said, close on Esposito's heels. He turned back to look at Bryn, "You stay with Aunt Lanie, Sweet Pea. Okay? Be good." Bryn nodded and continued talking to Lanie.

The boys pulled up to the grocery and piled out. Castle had made many a midnight run to the store when Bryn was a baby. Enough to know that employees were few, and it was likely who ever worked last night would be there. It was late afternoon, and a teenage girl played a game on her phone behind the counter.

"Detective Esposito," Esposito and Ryan both held up their badges, "were you working here last night?" The girl put her phone down on the counter and focused on the badges. Her plastic name tag read 'Kinzlee".

"Um, no. Gavin works nights. Why? Did he do something?" She sat up a little straighter and Castle saw a gleam of excitement in her eyes.  
"We just need to ask him some questions. Do you know how we can get ahold of him?"

"He'll be back for the start of his shift at midnight, but he and I don't exactly get along. So, I have no idea what his number is." She tried to hide her disappointment that her co-worker wouldn't be drug away in shackles. Esposito nodded and glanced around the store.

"Is that camera recording?" he asked, nodding to a standard video camera in the far corner. Kinzlee followed his gaze and her excitement returned.

"Oh, yeah! Do you need to see the recordings? I don't know how to bring old ones up, but I know where the computer is! Cops know how to find old recordings, right?" She was already up from her stool and heading towards the 'Employees only' door.

Ryan sat in the computer chair, Esposito, Castle, and Kinzlee stood around him. He brought up the video footage from midnight two in the morning and fast forwarded till Kate walked in. They all watched her scope out the shelves, looking for something specific. The teenage boy, Gavin, sat behind the counter. Esposito chuckled a little at how nervous the kid got when Kate's gun showed. They watched her buy her lavender bath soap, leave the grocery, and continue down the sidewalk.

Kate felt like it had been days. Her head was still pounding and her stomach was growling. She wondered why she was in her underwear, she wondered what time it is, she wondered why her head hurt so much, and- most of all- she wondered if Esposito and Ryan were close to finding her. She'd been trying to lick the duct tape off her mouth, but her mouth was dry and it made her head hurt more. Now, she just lay with her eyes closed, wishing away the headache. Suddenly, she heard a door bang open somewhere outside her box. She listened to footsteps walking toward her box, she guessed it was two different guys.

"What the hell is so important that you had to call me down?!" one guy with a thick Jersey accent asked. They stopped walking right by Kate's box. She held her breath.

"This one, right here," the second man said, a hand banged against the top of her box, right next to her head and she couldn't help but let out a little startled yip, "number 47, Katherine Houghton Castle."

"What's the problem?" Jersey asked again, "she looks hot."

"She's a cop."

"So?"

"SO? You wanna put a friggin COP on the market? No one is gonna buy a cop!" the second guy explained, "her last name is Castle, maybe she know that author! We could probably get more in ransom money than we could in Colombia."

"Shut up. She doesn't fucking know Richard Castle. Just send her out with the rest, you don't have to fucking tell them she's a cop. As long as we get paid up front."

Kate was frozen in fear with only two words in her head. Human trafficking.


	4. Four

Disclaimer- I doth not own-ith thy usual cast-ith of thy characters.

Castle watched the recording for the 130th time. He watched Kate walk down the sidewalk. He watched the man come up behind her, and her pull her gun. For the 130th time, he watched the barbs of the taser shoot out and connect with Kate. Castle turned off the recording before she could hit the ground for the 130th time.

They'd thought the street camera would have gotten something useful, instead it was a bust. Standard white pedo-van, license plates covered in dust and mud. One angle, no witnesses. Esposito had tried tracking her phone and Gates made sure every cop in the city had a picture of the van. Ryan was calling hospitals and Lanie was at the loft with Bryn.

"God Damnit," Castle muttered, elbows on Kate's desk, hands buried in his hair. Normally he would be on the phone, putting in calls to all his friends with a foot in New York's shady underbelly. Collecting favors in exchange for information. But, his mind was drawn back to France, when a man he thought he could trust betrayed him. So, Castle sat at Kate's desk, waiting pathetically for some sort of news. After a few minutes, Gates came and sat with him.

"I talked to the kid at the store some more," she said, "he said he watched her leave, and that no one walked passed the window after her. So, we know they spotted her somewhere between the store and the camera's line of sight." Castle nodded numbly and stared at the Kate on the computer monitor, paused in mid-fall.

She heard the box rip a little more and a shard of light appeared across her legs. With her back against one side, she was extending her legs and slowly ripping her container open. Her head was still pounding, but Jersey and the other guy had left and she figured this was her chance. As she worked on ripping the box, she wondered what time it was. It was hard to tell, since she didn't know how long she was out. She wondered if she was the only one being kept in the immediate area. She'd yet to hear any evidence of other people to 'go on the market'.

The hole in the box got bigger and bigger, with one last push and a big 'RIPPP' she made a big tear in the side. Kate sat in silence for a moment, hoping the noise wasn't heard by Jersey or the other guy. When no one came to investigate she took a deep breath and propelled herself through the tear and rolled out of her box onto a concrete floor.

Kate just stared at the ceiling for a bit, waiting for the room to quit spinning and fighting back the nausea that came with it. The ceiling was typical warehouse metal rafters with industrial lights and the floor was smooth concrete. As the room began to slow, she made out more cardboard boxes. Lots of cardboard boxes. At first glance she estimated maybe 50, each one with a driver's license taped to the side. She looked over at her own license taped to the side of her busted-open box and figured that was how Jersey and the other guy knew her name. Kate brought her zip-tied arms up and winced as she ripped the duct tape of her mouth.

The boxes were set up a graveyard fashion on the west side of the warehouse, with space to walk between each box. The east side was a small garage area, big tool chest, pedo-van, and a work bench. On top of the workbench were five of those big, plastic storage boxes. Her box was halfway through the row furthest to the east. Kate eyed the toolbox and slowly started a kind of slither towards it.

It was slow going, having to stop every couple feet to smother her nausea. Kate cursed herself for her choice of underwear. _Fucking thong_, she thought as her cheeks slid painfully across the freezing cold floor. She replaced the horror of being found in the thong by her captors with burning anger at the thought of them stripping her down to the thong in the first place.

When she reached the toolbox, Kate grabbed a drawer handle and pulled herself into a sitting position. The room spun even faster than before, and Kate clapped her hand over her mouth to avoid throwing up. It didn't work. She snapped her head away from the toolbox and coughed the contents of her stomach up onto the concrete. It wasn't much. Kate wondered how long it'd been since she'd eaten, then refocused on the toolbox.

She opened every drawer she could reach, hunting for something sharp. She sifted through wrenches and screwdrivers. A drawer completely full of nuts and bolts. Finally, four drawers up, she found a box cutter. It was brand new, looked like it'd never been used. Kate grabbed it from the drawer and immediately dropped it.

She winced as the blade slashed through the skin on top of her thigh._ Relax_, Kate told herself as the blood started to seep out of the cut, _you're fine, keep going_. Not wasting any time, Kate ignored the blood running down her leg and picked the boxcutter back up. With one hand, she started sawing at the zip tie around her wrists. Her head was pounding, she felt as though she'd throw up again at anytime, her mouth tasted like vomit, and the slash in her leg was throbbing.

The first ziptie broke unexpectedly, and the momentum from the sawing motion sunk the blade deep into Kate's forearm, right below her wrist. "Son of a bitch," she hissed and bit down hard on her lip. She skipped her elbow-zip tie and started working on the two around her legs. The cut in her leg wasn't too bad, though it was still bleeding. She figured it'd need a couple butterfly bandages at most. When the zip ties on her legs broke, Kate bent painfully at the waste and used her feet to pull the zip tie from around her elbows up to her forearms, then she just wiggled it off.

With the zip ties off, Kate sat with her back to the toolbox to regroup. She needed to call Castle or the precinct. She lugged her aching body up onto her feet, then immediately regretted it. The room spun even faster than the first two times. She stumbled over to the work bench and- holding onto it for support- doubled over to throw up, but there was nothing in her stomach and she found herself gagging on nothing.

Kate straightened herself up and inspected the big, plastic storage boxes. Two were filled with clothes, one with purses, one with shoes, and one with cellphones. She spotted her gun and badge in with the cellphones, and grabbed the whole container.

Trying to walk felt like she had run around in a circle thirty times with her forehead on a baseball bat, the room was spinning and tilting back and forth at odd angles. She stumbled her way to the far west wall, occasionally bracing herself against a box to gag some more. She'd broken out in a cold sweat, felt sick to her stomach, her head throbbed, her cuts burned, and she ached all over.

In the very corner of the warehouse Kate found herself face first in the concrete, phones scattered everywhere and blood in her mouth. She flipped herself onto her back and spit blood up onto the floor. _How did I get on the floor_? She wondered, the tips of her fingers gently prodding her split lip. _Did I fall? I don't remember falling._ Kate stared up at the rafter ceiling again, momentarily forgetting what she'd been doing.

"I need to call Castle," she muttered to herself and grabbed the cellphone nearest to her. Kate typed in the first number that came to mind and put the phone to her ear.

Castle still sat at Kate's desk. Ryan and Esposito were- per Castle's request- tracing Kate's phone for the hundredth time. It was 10:30 at night but no one wanted to go home. No one wanted to sleep till Kate was back. Castle knew he NEEDED to go home, Bryn and Lanie were there and Lanie probably didn't want to stay there all night. The writer put his elbows on the desk and ran his hands through his hair, vaguely aware of Esposito answering his desk phone.

"Esposito," he answered. There was a pause as he listened to the person on the other end. Castle's head snapped up when Esposito exclaimed, "Kate? Where are you? Ryan, trace the call. Are you okay?" Within seconds of hearing her name, Castle was next to Espo, staring intently at the phone in his hands. The Detective handed the phone off the Castle and started rounding up officers.

"Kate, Oh my God, where are you?" Castle asked, hands shaking. He listened to her take a deep breath.

"I don't know, but the concrete is cold. Is Bryn okay?"

"She's fine, are you okay? We're coming to get you."

"Castle," she whispered, "why are you talking so loud?" His brow furrowed in confusion, he hadn't been talking any different. Ryan wrote the address the call was coming from and announced it to the bullpen.

"I- I wasn't. Listen, Kate, we've got the address. Okay? Call my cell, I'm coming to get you."

The cops scattered around the warehouse like ants. They methodically walked through the door, so no one was left uncovered. When Castle walked in after them, the first thing he saw were the smears of blood by the rolling toolbox. Ryan was examining a bloody hand print on the workbench. "Could be hers," Esposito observed.

"KATE!" Castle called. They were all silent, waiting for a reply.

"Castle?" she called back. Though it wasn't very loud, Castle went running off to the corner it came from. He wove through the boxes and found her laying next to one in the corner, out of sight from the rest of the warehouse. he sunk to his knees next to her. She was in her underwear, her lip was split open and blood trailed down her chin, there was a goose egg on her forehead, a nasty cut on her leg and on her arm.

"Oh, Kate," he grabbed her hand in his and put the other on her back, coaxing her to sit up. He pulled her into a sitting position and kept his hold on her while she swayed. He shrugged his coat off, put it around her, and hugged her close to his chest. She smelt like blood and sweat.

"Wheres Bryn?" she asked into his shirt.

"She's okay, she's at home with Lanie," he said and looked up at the cops opening the other boxes and helping women out of them, then added, "I'm lifting you up."

"Castle, no I'm fi-" she began to protest, but Castle slid an arm under her knees and lifted her. She buried her face in his neck and closed her eyes. Now that he was here and she knew she was safe, Kate realized just how exhausted she was. Ambulances had parked outside the warehouse, and one had backed up into the small driveway.

Castle carried her to the one in the driveway, laid her on the gurney, and took a seat next to her. Kate was still laying on the gurney, ice pack on her head, left arm draped over her eyes, and right hand casually holding Castle's, when a paramedic climbed in with them and shut the doors.

A/N: Wow, I'm so sorry it took this long for a new chapter. If you want to hear my excuses, my computer crashed and I started school. Also, the new promo about killed me. Okay, the promo one isn't entirely true. But, come on, it was a little heart-stopping.

Um, never had a concussion before. But, I imagine it'd be something like this?

Okay, so, review and expect probably one more chapter.


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